Queue Tips: We don't need no education.

I saw "An Education" many years ago when it first came out.  I remember it as being one of the films that year that was being considered for awards and stuff and that is how I heard about it.  It was kind of a bit perplexing to me because it is about a relationship between a young girl and an older guy.  What was puzzling to me was that all the characters in the movie were just kind of okay with it.  And what was even more disturbing was that the audiences at the time didn't seem to care either.

In the beginning, the girl's dad started off being against her being with this guy.  And then he just kind of decided that it was okay.  And the mom was mostly just silent about the whole thing.  I don't think they even asked much about who this guy was and how they met and what his intentions were.  Not that they should even have had to.  She was in high school, and the guy was like ten years older than her.

They met because one day he coincidentally saw her standing in the rain with her cello, and he was so concerned about the instrument that he offered to give her a right.  Like he would do the same if she wasn't attractive or young.  And she just goes in this stranger's car.  Her character was supposed to be sophisticated and I guess mature for her age?  But she couldn't look past this lame pick up attempt.

Anyways, she then goes to a concert with this guy.  They are there with a couple of his friends.  They are a couple, of the same age.  So you juxtapose that with this guy in his late twenties or early thirties going to the same event with a high school girl.  But you see nothing wrong with it.  And this couple is constantly suggesting they do more stuff together and that the guy will take her to do all sorts of things with her.  They don't question why he is with this girl.  She was fifteen.

When I first watched this in 2009, I kept wondering if this was a normal thing in England?  Or at least at that time period?  Rewatching it now, it is even more cringy.  What am I missing?

One of the films I watch every fall is "Rushmore".  This film is also about a fifteen year old who falls in love with an adult.  Here, the adult tells the child that they should not be together.  Attraction has nothing to do with it because of their age difference.

Looking up info about the movie, it seems like it may have been based on a true story.  Someone wrote a memoir of her affair with an older guy.  And I guess that kind of makes it more acceptable?  Or maybe the point is that we are supposed to feel uneasy watching it.  And we are supposed to wonder why no one is putting a stop to it.  That it might actually be possible for this minor to be failed by so many adults around her.  This is supposed to be a coming of age story, and in the end when she finds out the truth about him, she learns a life lesson.  She gets an education first hand even though her parents and the other adults should have looked out for her.